Best Guitar Player

I made this list off the top of my head so if I missed anyone you can pick other and tell us your pick. I tried to cover some of the people often considered "best guitar player" with some of my own picks thrown in. I would normally pick Steve Vai or Joe Satriani(because he taught Steve and Kirk), but I'm going a little different and picking Tom Morello. He has one of the most unique sounds (Johnny has the most unique imo) and has some amazing riffs and solos in both Rage and Audioslave. Jimi is way overrated, I would put any guitarist on the list ahead of him. David Gilmore is number 2, the guy wrote Comfortably Numb.

Eddie Van Halen

Best is so subjective but some on here are funny as they aren't really highly proficient as players. Went Marty but an argument could be made for EVH, Satch and Vai.

Although some others may have more technical skills, I am going with David Gilmour. He may not play super fast, but boy does he know how to make guitar solos that sound incredible. High Hopes is my favorite, blows Comfortably Numb out of the water imo
For pure technical skills though, Chris Impellitteri probably beats anyone you have listed

Gilmore is about tone and feel, like a Knopfler it's not about flash but they're great.

Pethead wrote:Eddie Van Halen

That's embarrassing that I forgot him...

seth wrote:Although some others may have more technical skills, I am going with David Gilmour. He may not play super fast, but boy does he know how to make guitar solos that sound incredible. High Hopes is my favorite, blows Comfortably Numb out of the water imo
For pure technical skills though, Chris Impellitteri probably beats anyone you have listed

For pure skills I would go Herman Li. But he doesn't have as much feel or uniqueness as the other players so he would never be number one imo

Schenker is another great player that gets overlooked.

Black Rider wrote:Schenker is another great player that gets overlooked.

Who does he play for? I don't recognize his name.

I went with Dave, but it could go either way between him and Marty. Hetfield is my favorite riff writer, but I gotta go with one of the RiP players for the combination of riff writing and technical skill.

Dave is a great player but once, in a rare moment of humbleness, he said Marty was a better player. I was surprised he'd admit it.

Black Rider wrote:Dave is a great player but once, in a rare moment of humbleness, he said Marty was a better player. I was surprised he'd admit it.

Marty is the soloist in Tornado of Souls, so I won't argue that point.

That is pretty surprising that Dave would admit anything like that lol

“The best” is subjective…

One guitarist’s strength maybe another’s weakness. 

I chose Tony Iommi (from this list) because he is the king of riffs. He also essentially invented metal guitar.

Although I’m happy with my choice, here’s some other obvious suggestions…

EVH
Randy Rhoads 
Paul Gilbert
Dimebag Darrell 
Alex Skolnick 
George Lynch
Criss Oliva
Ty Tabor

TZ75 wrote:Although I’m happy with my choice, here’s some other obvious suggestions…

EVH
Randy Rhoads 
Paul Gilbert
Dimebag Darrell 
Alex Skolnick 
George Lynch
Criss Oliva
Ty Tabor

Yeah, it was off the top of my head so I missed some. I'm kinda embarrassed that I missed EVH, Randy, and Dimebag.

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:

Black Rider wrote:Schenker is another great player that gets overlooked.

Who does he play for? I don't recognize his name.

Hammett, Dave, and Marty are all disciples of Michael Schenker.  If more modern players listened to him, we would have much better guitar playing these days.


He's the brother of Rudolph Schenker of the Scorpions.  Michael was briefly part of the band and played solos on Lovedrive.

How are we forgetting the best soloist of all time, Kerry King!

Cause, you know, it takes a lot of skill to make solos that make it sound like you're running your strings over with a guitar... right...

(Kerrick most certainly did not pay me to say this, don't start thinking that)

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:

Black Rider wrote:Schenker is another great player that gets overlooked.

Who does he play for? I don't recognize his name.

Early on he played for the Scorpions, UFO and then formed MSG(Michael Schenker Group) also it stood for McCauley Schenker Group when Robin sang for him. 
Schenker is one of my favorites. Also,
EVH
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Chris Impellitteri 
Yngwie Malmsteen
Gary Moore
Steve Morse 
Tony Palacios
Phil Keaggy
Dave Beegle

Those are just a few off the top of my head.

StevenCressler wrote:the best soloist of all time, Kerry King!

All his solos are whammy bar spam.

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:the best soloist of all time, Kerry King!

All his solos are whammy bar spam.

That's the point... could you not tell I was joking?

StevenCressler wrote:

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:the best soloist of all time, Kerry King!

All his solos are whammy bar spam.

That's the point... could you not tell I was joking?

Oh, no I couldn't lol.

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:the best soloist of all time, Kerry King!

All his solos are whammy bar spam.

That's the point... could you not tell I was joking?

Oh, no I couldn't lol.

Ok, it's fine. I just thought the rest of my comment made it pretty obvious, but I guess you just didn't catch it.

Also, note that any time Kerrick and Slayer are mentioned in the same post, it's 99% sure to be a joke lol

Went with Marty, but, as others have noted, it could easily go to some of the others.

I'm more of a rhythm guy, so I gotta pick Hetfield.

Skolnick and Malmsteen aren't on the list or I would've picked one of them.

Also Steve Lukather is underrated.

MagnusPrime wrote:I'm more of a rhythm guy, so I gotta pick Hetfield.

Why not Malcolm Young?  Or Rudolph Schenker?  Tipton/Downing are a better duo than Hammett/Hetfield as are Murray/Smith.  Metallica would be nowhere without them.

This poll is woefully incomplete to vote.  Where's the effort?

Mark Knopfler, Phil Keaggy, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, Ritchie Blackmore?  As well as others previously mentioned.